Zebras, and Giraffes, and Wildebeest, Oh My!

Over break, Britt and I rented a car and drove to Kwantu Game Reserve for our first ever Game Drive (safari). The GPS took us the wrong way (I think I many have taken a wrong turn...) and we ended up on this crazy dirt road in our little Chrysler Sparklite (refer to previous post for photo of the smallest car ever). It was quite the adventure. Who knew we would be off-roading, 10,000 miles from home, in a clown car? Here is a photo of the road less traveled... seriously...

Due to our ridiculous detour we arrived to Kwantu almost two hours late. Because of that, however, we went on our own personal game drive- which was really cool. We saw zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, tons of deer-like creatures with various names such as bushbok, springbok, blessbok, etc., turtles, mongoose, ostriches and lions. The Kwantu game reserve is huge, home to South Africa's Big Five -- elephants, lions, buffalo, rhinos and cheetah. We spent two hours tracking elusive animals with our guide. There isn't anything quite like being in the wild with some of God's coolest creatures.

Unfortunately for us we didn't get to see elephants, lions (except those that were in captivity), buffalo or rhinos. It was a cloudy and somewhat rainy day and, according to our guide, the animals tend to hide away in the bush on crummy days. Even still, we got to see some really cool creatures-- giraffes and zebras, HELLO!?-- and spend a few hours in the beautiful South African plains. It was a fantastic day.

This was our game drive guide. I cannot, for the life of me, remember his name.
He was a funny and very knowledgeable guy-- been in the animal business for going on 11 years. 

This photo is a bit deceiving... we have already gone on the drive at this point. But we look like we are justing getting ready to set off on the adventure! We had this truck and the guide all to ourselves! 

The African plains. Nothing like it.

We spotted a herd of wildebeest. Our guide told us that when a predator or potential threat are around the entire herd will stop what they are doing, turn and stare in the direction of the threat. I can see why... it was quite intimidating.

We saw so many zebras during the drive. These zebras are not the typical zebra that we think of (according to our guide). These zebras are Burschell's zebras-- they are specific to the region. You can tell the difference by the stripes. The strips on these zebras (pronouced "ze-bras" --NOT "zee-bras"-- by South Africans) wrap around their bellies and across their bums. Also, there is a brownish-orange shadow strip down the white strips. The baby zebras have orange hair. They are beautiful.

It was a super cold day. We had blankets on the drive! It was probably in the  low 50's. NOT something we are used to in ZA!

Do you see what I see?! Our guide was tracking the lions during our whole trip. We really wanted to see them! Unfortunately, these tracks are all that we saw of the wild lions. Still, pretty incredible, right?

More lion tracks. The reserve has 4 wild lions-- one male, a female and two cubs. They limit the number of lions within the reserve. Why would they do that?

To maintain a proportional predator-prey ratio. Good thinking.

While he was tracking the lions our guide spotted some serious big bugs. I cannot remember what kind of a beetle this is! There were two of them on the side of the road and the guide spotted them right away. Homie has some good eyes.

A little bigger than a quarter. Yikes.

Do you know what this is? We all saw these all over the place out on the plains and in the bush. Britt and I thought they were rocks. Nope. Wrong-o. These are termite mounds. They are gigantic. This one was about four feet tall! Our guide told us that they are about as big underground as they are above ground.

The houses in South Africa are made with cinder blocks and concrete. Why? For two reasons-- 1. The weather is temperate so there is not real need for insulation. There aren't very many houses with AC (not that I have seen, anyway) or heat;  2. TERMITES. There are some crazy termites out here. They could probably eat a house in 24 hours. OK, I may be exaggerating. Look it up to see for yourself how long it would take. I would assume, by the size of these mounds that it wouldn't take much time at all. 

Look what we found when our guide was tracking lions! We came upon a herd of giraffes-- 6 giraffes! Our guide gave us some really cool information about giraffes: male giraffes are very brightly colored. Why? To attract the less-colorful females. There are quite a few animals in nature (a lot, actually) that mate this way: the male is bright and colorful or does colorful/interesting things to attract the female.

Do you know how a giraffe sleeps? Apparently, they sleep for minutes at a time (between 7 and 10) and keep their head up when they are sleeping. 

A giraffe's heart is very powerful, after all, it has to pump blood all the way up that long neck.

We passed this right before we spotted the giraffes. This is a seventeenth century inn-- built in the 1860s. By the looks of it there were probably four or five rooms. This is literally in the middle of nowhere. Can you imagine living in the middle of the bush, with predators like cheetah and lions and your nearest neighbors miles and miles and miles away? That is how the Afrikaners rolled back in those days.

Notice the bark on the trees in this photo and the one above. Elephants eat the bark off of these trees which ends up killing the trees. 

You can see the brownish-orange shadow stripe that I was telling you about.... Zebras are probably my favorite animal. We have such a fun and creative God, eh?

Ostrich eggs - HUGE

We finally got to see some lions! They were in an enclosure, but as beautiful as ever. These lions are young (only a couple of years old). I can't remember where it is they got them from-- the reserve is looking for a place that they can take them so that they can live in the wild.

We had a wonderful time on our game drive! Seeing all of the animals and being in their natural habitats was one of the coolest experiences that I have ever had.

Sarah